World Data Center

World Data Centre
AbbreviationWDC
SuccessorWorld Data System (WDS)
Formation1957
Dissolved2008
TypeINGO
Purposescience data archive
Region served
Worldwide
Official language
English, French
Parent organization
International Council for Science (ICSU)

The World Data Centre (WDC) system was created to archive and distribute data collected from the observational programmes of the 1957–1958 International Geophysical Year by the International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU).[1][2] The WDCs were funded and maintained by their host countries on behalf of the international science community.

Originally established in the United States (WDC A),[3] Soviet Union (WDC B),[4] Europe and Japan (WDC C), the WDC system expanded to other countries and to new scientific disciplines.[5] The WDC system included up to 52 Centres in 15 countries, with some data centres replicating another.[6][7] All data held in WDCs were available for the cost of copying and sending the requested information. In 1968 the ICSU Panel on World Data Centers (Geophysical, Solar, and Environmental) was established to coordinate activities and to establish operating criteria for the WDCs.[8]

At the end of 2008, following the ICSU General Assembly in Maputo (Mozambique), the World Data Centres were reformed and a new ISC World Data System (WDS) established in 2009. Expanding on the 50-year heritage of the ICSU World Data Centre system (WDC) and the ICSU Federation of Astronomical and Geophysical data-analysis Services,[9] most of the legacy data centers and services continued under the WDS.


List of World Data Centres and Services
Centre or Service Acronym Parent Host Nation Year Notes
International Gravimetric Bureau BGI IAG, CNES Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées France 1951 bgi.obs-mip.fr
International Space Environment Service ISES Natural Resources Canada Geomagnetic Laboratory Canada 1956 www.spaceweather.org
International Service of Geomagnetic Indices ISGI IUGG Observatory for Earth Sciences (EOST) France 1956
Solar-Terrestrial Physics STP Russian Academy of Sciences Geophysical Center Russia 1956
NOAA National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC) USA 1957 [10]

NBS 1957–1964, NGDC 1965–2015, NCEI

NERC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory UK
Bureau of Meteorology IPS Radio and Space Services Australia 2000 www.sws.bom.gov.au/World_Data_Centre
Airglow National Astronomical Observatory of Japan Japan 1957
Cosmic Rays CR Nagoya University Solar-Terrestrial Environment Laboratory Japan 1957 cidas.isee.nagoya-u.ac.jp
NOAA National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC) USA 1957 University of Minnesota 1957–1966,

Aeronomy and Space Data Center 1966–1972

Geomagnetism Kyoto University Geophysical Institute Japan 1957 [11]

INTERMAGNET

NOAA National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC) USA 1957 [12]

C&GS 1957–1964, NGDC 1965–2015

NERC British Geological Survey UK www.wdc.bgs.ac.uk
Danish Meteorological Institute Denmark 1957 www.space.dtu.dk
Indian Institute of Geomagnetism India 1971
Glaciology NOAA National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) USA 1957 [13] AGS 1957–1969,

USGS 1970–1976

University of Cambridge Scott Polar Research Institute UK 1957 www.wdcgc.spri.cam.ac.uk
Chinese Academy of Sciences Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute (CARD) China 1988
Ionosphere National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) Japan 1957 wdc.nict.go.jp
Meteorology MET NOAA National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) USA 1957 [14]

National Weather Records Center (NWRC) 1957–1967, NCDC 1967–2015, NCEI

Chinese Academy of Sciences National Meteorological Information Center China 1988
All-Russian Research Institute of Hydrometeorological Information Russia
Oceanography NOAA National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) USA 1957 [15]

Texas A&M 1957–1961, NODC 1961–2015, NCEI

State Oceanic Administration National Marine Data and Information Service China 1988
Permanent Service for Mean Sea Level PSMSL National Oceanography Centre (NOC) UK 1957 formerly Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory, Liverpool
Rockets and Satellites NASA NASA Space Science Data Coordinated Archive (NSSDCA) USA 1957 [16]

US National Academy of Sciences 1957–1968

Nuclear Radiation Japan Meteorological Agency Meteorological Research Institute Japan 1957
Aurora NOAA National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC) USA 1957 Cornell University 1957-1967
National Institute of Polar Research Japan 1981 polaris.nipr.ac.jp
International Center for Earth Tides ICET University of French Polynesia Tahiti Geodetic Observatory France 1966 igets.u-strasbg.fr
Soils IUSS International Soil Reference and Information Centre (ISRIC) The Netherlands 1966
Solar Radio Emissions National Astronomical Observatory of Japan Nobeyama Solar Radio Observatory Japan 1969
Tsunamis NOAA National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC) USA 1969 ngdc.noaa.gov
Space Science JAXA Institute of Space and Astronautical Science Japan 1969
Chinese Academy of Sciences National Space Science Center China 1988 www.cssdc.ac.cn
Solid Earth Geophysics SEG NOAA National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC) USA 1971 [17]

NGDC 1971–2015, NCEI

Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute of Geology and Geophysics China 1988
Astronomy IAU, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) Centre de données astronomiques de Strasbourg (CDS) France 1972 cds.unistra.fr
Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing Astronomical Observatory China 1988
Rotation of the Earth United States Naval Observatory (USNO) USA 1972
Climate University of Hamburg Max Planck Institute for Meteorology Germany 1975 www.wdc-climate.de
Marine Geology and Geophysics NOAA National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC) USA 1975 [18]

NGDC 1975–2015, NCEI

Solar Activity Observatoire de Meudon France 1978
Atmospheric Trace Gases Department of Energy Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center (CDIAC) USA 1982 ess-dive.lbl.gov
Sunspot Index & Solar Influences SILSO, SIDC IAU Royal Observatory of Belgium Belgium 1985 www.sidc.be
World Glacier Monitoring Service WGMS IUGG University of Zurich Switzerland 1986
Seismology USGS National Earthquake Information Center (NEIC) USA 1986
International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service IERS United States Naval Observatory (USNO) USA 1988 www.iers.org
Paleoclimatology NOAA National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC) USA 1989 NGDC 1989–2015,

NCEI

International GNSS Service IGS IUGG NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory USA 1994 igs.org
Human Interactions in the Environment Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC) USA 1995
International VLBI Service for Geodesy and Astrometry IVS IUGG NASA Crustal Dynamics Data Information System (CDDIS) USA 2001 ivscc.gsfc.nasa.gov
Biodiversity and Ecology USGS Center for Biological Informatics USA 2001
Marine Environmental Sciences MARE Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research Center for Marine Environmental Sciences (MARUM) Germany 2001 www.marum.de
Land Cover Data & Remotely Sensed Land Data USGS Earth Resources Observation Systems (EROS) USA 2002
Remote Sensing of the Atmosphere RSAT DLR German Remote Sensing Data Centre (DFD) Germany 2002 wdc.dlr.de
Recent Crustal Movements Geodetic Observatory Pecny Czech Republic 2002–2006

See also

References

  1. ^ Korsmo, F. L. (2010) The Origins and Principles of the World Data Center system CODATA Data Science Journal, Volume 8
  2. ^ Dieminger, Walter; Hartmann, Gerd K. & Leitinger, Reinhart (1996) The World Data Center System, International Data Exchange, and New ICSU Programs The Upper Atmosphere Springer-Verlag pp 921–941
  3. ^ World Data Center A Report on the U.S. Program for the International Geophysical Year (1965) IGY General Report #21 section XVII National Academies Press https://doi.org/10.17226/26118 pp785–812
  4. ^ Lyubovtseva, Y. S., Gvishiani, A. D., Soloviev, A. A., Samokhina, O. O., and Krasnoperov, R. I. (2020) Sixtieth anniversary of the International Geophysical Year (1957–2017) – contribution of the Soviet Union History of Geo- and Space Sciences, 11, p157–171
  5. ^ Aronova, Elena (2017) Geophysical Datascapes of the Cold War: Politics and Practices of the World Data Centers in the 1950s and 1960s Osiris Volume 32, Number 1
  6. ^ Strategic Committee on Information and Data ICSU 2008 p27–30
  7. ^ WDC List NOAA
  8. ^ ICSU (1987) Guide to the World Data Center System, Part 1, The World Data Centers
  9. ^ Open Science by Design: Realizing a Vision for 21st Century Research National Academies Press ISBN 9780309476249 2018 p103
  10. ^ WDC A Report Upper Atmosphere Geophysics NOAA 1971 p iv
  11. ^ What is 'World Data Center'? Kyoto University
  12. ^ World Data System NOAA
  13. ^ Barry, Roger G. and Gan, Thian Yew (2022) The Global Cryosphere p5, 103
  14. ^ World Data Centres WMO
  15. ^ Moffat, Ronald (1998) WDC A Oceanography Catalogue of Data WDCA-OC-98-1 p1, 7, 26
  16. ^ About the World Data Center for Satellite Information NASA
  17. ^ Directory of US Data Repositories Supporting the International Geodynamics Project NOAA 1978 pii
  18. ^ NOAA (1990) The National Geophysical Data Center p77, 91